SAYWHAT! ‘The Hunger Games’ Fans Outraged By Black Actors

While The Hunger Games book received rave reviews, fans of the book took to Twitter to express their disappointment in the fact that three of the characters in the movie were played by black actors. Some of the tweets read:

“Why does Rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie”

“Call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad #ihatemyself”

“I was pumped about the hunger games until I learned a black girl was playing Rue”

“Eww Rue is black I’m not watching!”

“Rue can’t be black! No can’t be!”

“Why do Cinna and Rue have to be black? #racist”

“Obvs Rue and Thresh are played by nwords. LOL”

Rue was played by actress Amandla Stenberg, Cinna was played by Lenny Kravitz and Thresh was played by actor Dayo Okeniyi. Rue’s appearance in the movie apparently came as a shock to most of the audience even though Suzanne Collins, the author of the book series describes her having dark skin, “And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she’s very much like Prim in size and demeanor.” Read more commentary and see the actors that played in The Hunger Games by clicking below. @dee_larue

I’m not sure what saddens me more, the fact that people still have racist views in 2012, the fact that most of the these tweets are coming from people under the age of 16, or the fact that people seemingly have no shame in expressing their racist views via a popular social networking site. How does the color of someone’s skin affect their ability to act? Does it make them less qualified? Does it change the plot of the movie? Does it make the movie less entertaining? So what’s the problem? If they had taken the time to read Rue’s description more closely it wouldn’t have come as a surprise to see her being portrayed by a black actress. Sadly this is a prime example that racism is still very much alive.